071 Love, Sex, and Prostitution
The History of Ancient Greece
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Aristophanes' Atlantis
Aristophanes says that love is the youngest of the gods, and he sees Eros as youthful. In some ways this appears to be an explanation for homosexuality or heterosexuality. But most scholars argue that it was meant to be comedy - not a real myth. Socrates then gives two speeches explaining what he has been taught by Diotema. She tells him that love falls between knowledge and ignorance,. Men should start with the ideal form of beauty which she calls earthly love. The next step is to pass from this person to another who can give birth to ideas.
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